The Deeper Meanings
behind the scenes

SOL 

Indo-European, Sanskrit, Latin roots. Signifying the sun, the source of life, of energy. Alchemically speaking, the divine spark. The father. That about which we orbit, our Earth and all of us upon her. God, for many. One of the Gods, for many others. A word representative also of Soul, being only one letter away, and ‘the source of our life and energy’ arguably also being the Soul’s definition, or perhaps its purpose.
 

ACE 

Representative of the One. Often the highest card. Calling us to place it upon the table first, no matter the rest of our hand. Associated with excellence and victory. Often the liminal and variable card also, however. Depending on the game we play, it can be the least valued, in between the ten and jack, or higher even than the king and queen. The question: What game shall we play? And who chooses the rules and values anyway?

 

SOLACE

That which returns us home, to the maternal and paternal hearth, the highest self’s fireside. Here, there are loving arms, and eyes, to regenerate life-force, to retrieve our truthfulness and soulfulness from wherever and however it has been lost.

 In the context of grief, anguish, pain, and the kind of rage that enacts waste instead of change - solace is the alchemical drive that creates livity and unity, wholeness, meaningfulness. 

​

It is an energy of successfully nourished transformation where there could be stuckness, and empowerment and grace where there could be desolation. 

​

To re-source ourselves in all that is solar, to choose our highest card and calling. To initiate ourselves into the highest potentials of our birth and rites.

​

Dictionaries speak of ‘comfort’ being synonymous with solace. I say fuck the dictionaries. 

​

They can be great but they can also oversimplify things and make them artless. Comfort is a rule-creating thing, a stifling and dulling phenomenon which causes stagnation. Solace burns comfort to smithereens, alongside other inhibitors of growth, it engulfs it in its life-creating inner furnaces, forges gold alchemical, strength from our weakness, and spits it out like volcanos spout the Earth’s molten, flaming core. 

​

Thus is my definition of solace, for the creation of this project and all it holds. 

​

You may find the language lofty. This is because I intend to push creative limits into the realms of novel design. This happens by purposefully taking the pathways made viewable and accessible by freed poetics, by enjoying artistry in the words if we have to use words at all. These pathways are blocked by the trappings of belittling conventional phrasing and expression. 

Do you not agree? 

 

It’s funny really, because of how important it is, equally, to not take ourselves too seriously. 

​

We know nothing at all, do we? We grasp at the fineries and refineries and refinements of theories, those of ourselves and others, and we hold on for life, we hold them dear, we take them to our deaths. 

​

May this project teach us to let go of concepts just as much as it introduces the possibilities of new and renewed ones. 

​

May it have a sense of humour.

​

As well as a profound sensitivity to all tides and seasons, kind and harsh realities. Wisdom and a strong embrace of the fullest scales of life’s worth and experience, justice and inevitability. 

​

There is the most raw and hellish suffering under the sun, the most exaltant and divine knowing of love also, and all things in between. Between Heaven and Earth. More things, Horatio, than are dreamt of in our philosophies.

​

 All are ours to share, equally. Care, care is a central pillar in what is to be built in this project. So is the concept of us all being kindred spirits here, or us all at least being inspirited by kinship, when it is consciously chosen, learnt, practiced, grown.

 

​

Shall i make a list of core values and principles?

To underpin this work, in order to save you, your comprehension and your time from further poeticalities? Alright. I know we all like lists very much. They are comforting.
 

Here’s a different kind of list, one made in Solace spirit, but with a more affective intention not to overblow the choices of language. I’m going to say things more simply than i would normally, in order to make the vision more coherent and clear: 

Care and Unifying Kinship i’ve mentioned already, they’re self-evident. Here are the rest, if you’re ready.
 

1. Decoloniality.
   Every step of the way, this work is about uprooting and burning, comprehending and transmuting the structures encoded and programmed within our unconscious both collective and individual. The structures, or entities, we could say, that live on within us, perpetuating the extractive and murderous remnant archetypes of parasitic empires.
    

2. Determination.
   I will not give up. I know there are things here some or many need to discover and re-envision. Even though some will not have the frames of mind to recognise this work as valuable, or will think it not my place to create it.
    

3. Discipline.

4. It’s beautiful. I need to hold it up here to the light as a shining star to not let me stray.
    

5. The Decision to commit to the rites of passage.
   Even if sometimes I feel I do not have the right. It is beyond me, it’s not about the rights I think I have or don’t have. This is about birthright, human right, for all people. These rites must be inscribed in passages, in life rhythms, abundant, joyous at times as well as arduous. The passageways of these rites shall become clear as the Work proceeds. We won’t emerge the same as we entered. Civilisation is encountering certain rites, in our times, right now. So are we all - as persons, as souls.
    

6. Life work: soul art, music from the source.
   Not ego, not commerce, not status and popularity contestation, not the following of trends and tropes. Sincerity of soul purpose. Integrity to these principles. Every. Single. Step. Of. The. Journey.
    

7. Regenerative Artistry.
   This means that not only is it progressive, boundary-dismantling - it is nourishing, and life-sustaining. It cuts wood and carries water, and puts the soul food on the table. It is irreverent of 20 second reel culture, because it is about the evolution of real culture. This one is for our children and theirs, and our parents inner and outer. The forefathers and mothers, their wildest dreams. Our forebears, their right to dream, and realise their dreams.
    

8. Love.
   Love.
   The reason we’re all living, that we’re all living together. The whole soul in collective, yes, but also the very flesh and bone.
   
   Please don’t forget about the care and the unifying kinship, but I suppose I could put those into this bit to explain what I mean about love as a core value of this project.

Keep an eye out for new releases and events coming near you!